The Cursed Ones
Background The Cursed Ones, also often called the Harbingers of Destruction, used to be not so different from humans. Similar traits, similar physical attributes, similar cultures. They were living in a contemporary society on their home planet, but as it goes, sometimes war strikes hard, and in contemporary context, these wars can be pretty violent. That’s how their own society collapsed, ravaged by nuclear wars. A small portion of this race, a neutral nation in the conflict, worked on magic research and developed a weapon capable of cutting through reality. They used it to cut themselves a portal out of this wrecked planet, to escape from it and rebuild elsewhere. This blade cut through reality and time, sending them in a completely different universe. In that universe, they built themselves a new home, their capital city sitting on a floating island. ' They built themselves an Utopia, and even found ruins that gave strange powers to a selected few, called Chosen Ones. These Chosen Ones were said to possess immortality, to be free of diseases and poison, and even have complete control over the elements. They were also said to be able to select someone and turn them into an Adept, a person possessing a fraction of their power, enhancing them. ' But through digging and exploring, they found some very old ruins in the middle of the floating island, in which they found a tomb. It wasn’t just any tomb. One foolish member of their society decided to open up this tomb, unleashing an ancient Evil upon the universe. This Ancient Evil unleashed doom upon their society, turning to ash anyone it’d gaze upon, shadows escaping the husks of ash to lay devastation upon mortals, also turning them to ash. The only ones that managed to escape this fate were the Chosen Ones and the Adepts, but they were stripped of their former powers and a mark was left on them, turning one of their body parts to ash, but strangely enough, they could still use it as normal. ' When they saw the devastation laid upon their city, they took their void blade and used it to flee to a different world. There, they ended up on a desolate and rough world, a very hostile world that made it very difficult for them to live. Despite all this, they slowly rebuilt, but lost most of the technology they once had. They raised up their numbers, but it didn’t take long before they realized that people with different curse marks could not procreate together. When they’d do it, the baby born of it would be made completely of ash, crumbling to nothingness in the hands of its parents. Thus, houses were born, each type of curse being its own house. ' It didn’t take long for this new world to reject them. It seemed like this new planet they attained had reached the end of its life, and cataclysms started happening all over the planet. The other inhabitants of the planet blamed the Cursed Ones for this, as the populations started to die out from intense smoke and volcanic eruptions. Through the chaos, the Cursed Ones left this dying world with the use of their blade, and ended up, yet again, on a new world. � On this new world, they finally managed to settle down and build properly. They stayed there for a long while, building city states for each houses, rebuilding a semblance of the utopia they once had. That is, until the Prophet had a vision, in which he saw the upcoming doom of his people. He tried and tried to convince the Houses to leave, but only a handful of them listened to him. He was known to the Cursed Ones as Ash Eyes. Nobody trusted him, as he was the only living member of his house. He was an Adept without a Chosen, and thus could not sire children and refused to try it with others. When he spoke up, only a handful decided to follow him. He used the blade to cut through the fabric of the universe, but was forced to leave it behind with the rest of the Cursed Ones, then ventured forth with those willing to accompany him. That is when he arrived with the others in Dark Horizon, where the tale of his people had already spread like wildfire. His people wasn’t trusted by anyone, yet they had to make a living there. Physical Description Cursed Ones share most human’s physical attributes, the only exception being that they all have very dark hair, close to pitch black for most. The curse also keeps them alive much longer than standard humans. The curse also makes them stronger in body Society Cursed Ones live in Houses, typically one for each bloodline, but it isn’t rare for a House to have independent branches. The two leaders of a House are known as the Chosen One and the Adept, the two of them usually being a couple. Due to their limited numbers, inbreeding isn’t that rare, but remnants of their former powers left them with pure DNA, thus this doesn’t create malformed infants. Of course, it does bring forth the ire of other races. Because of this, family is extremely important to a Cursed One, as they know that they can’t rely on anyone else than their own blood and those bearing similar marks. They also typically live in urban areas, but even in these, they are often isolated, building their own place in a corner, the architecture of their buildings being typically gothic. Traditions, legends and history is usually shared mainly through oral tradition, as they move around so much, but they also hold a lot of it in books the House is keeping in order. Relations Cursed Ones tend to keep to themselves a lot, as they are mistrusted and even hated by most other races. While the more evil races are more likely to accept them, the Cursed Ones are not evil in nature and do not typically desire the destruction of others, and thus they do not find allies in such races. On the contrary of what most would believe, the Cursed Ones are not vile in nature. Sadly for them, the more good races typically hate them and try to crush them in the hope of ridding the world of evil. Alignment and Religion Cursed Ones would typically be more good, but their dark past and the rejection they receive from other races make them more neutral than anything. That said, Cursed Ones are loyal to their families and to the rare friends they manage to make. Due to their once contemporary culture, Cursed Ones typically worship Abadar, but an ever growing number of them have started vowing a cult to Groetus. Some also worship the Elder Mythos, trying to reach out to the curse stuck inside their body. Adventurers Tired of the oppression of other races and trying to find a greater sense to their life, some Cursed Ones decide to leave the safety of their House to go on adventures, sometimes hoping to clean the name of their race, or sometimes even prove that other races should fear them. Names Cursed Ones are split between their different bloodlines, each inherating the name of their Chosen One. Cursed One names always start with the family name, followed by the first name. The available family names are such: * '''Lungs name: Hinoiki * Legs name: Ashinaga * Forearms name: Bāninguāmu * Neck name: Shirubānekku * Brain name: Ginpatsu * Mouth name: Shōbōsha The Cursed One's origins are both from French and Japanese inspired cultures, and thus they have Japanese-inspired family names, along with French first names. Here are examples, but feel free to pick any other French first names: Male first names: Antoine, Bernard, Christian, Daniel, François, Ian, Nicolas, René, Victor. Female first names: Alice, Blanche, Coralie, Émilie, Gisèle, Isabelle, Jacinthe, Noëlle, Pascale, Violette. Standard Racial Traits * Ability Score Modifiers (4 RP): The curse has empowered the Cursed Ones body and their dark past has made them strong-willed, but the constant migration of their people has left them unlearned. They gain +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +4 Wisdom, and -2 Intelligence. * Size (0 RP): Cursed Ones are Medium creatures and thus receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size. * Type (0 RP): Cursed Ones are humanoids with the Cursed and Human subtypes. * Base Speed (0 RP): Cursed Ones have a base speed of 30 feet. * Languages (0 RP): Cursed Ones begin play speaking Common and Aklo. Cursed Ones with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Abyssal, Infernal, Necril, Draconic, Elven, Dark Folk, Aboleth. * Ashen Part (4 RP): Cursed Ones have a curse mark on a portion of their body, making it made fully of ash, but it works just like normal. This portion loses its item slot but it cannot be destroyed (unless the Cursed One dies, but when brought back to life, it comes back with the Cursed One. It also can be cut off, but it regrows within one round, the severed limb turning into a pile of ashes). Any clothing and armor (or the Cursed One’s flesh covering the cursed portion) worn on top of the portion has its appearance turn to ash as well (but only for the portion of the attire covering the cursed part) but keeps all of its normal properties (the object doesn’t lose hardness or magical properties. Seeing through ash doesn’t allow sight through this). Choose One: * Lungs Chest: The Cursed One doesn’t need to breathe (but can, if desired). Thus, he is immune to inhaled poisons and other effects that work with breathing. * Legs Feet: The Cursed One gains adds an extra 10 feet of movement to his base movement speed. It gives him a +4 to CMD against bull rush and trip attempts. * Forearms Wrists: The Cursed Ones gain two claw attacks dealing damage as is usual for his size. They count as magical when it comes to damage reduction. * Neck Neck: The Cursed One gains 15% chance to negate critical hits. He is also immune to the vorpal effect (unless the weapon used counts as silver to bypass damage reductions). * Brain Head: The Cursed One gains +2 Intelligence. On top of it, so long as he has at least an Intelligence score of 11 or higher, he gains the following spell-like abilities (the caster level is equal to the Cursed One’s character level): 1/day—comprehend languages, detect magic, detect poison, read magic. * Mouth Body: The Cursed One gains a natural bite attack, dealing 1d6 points of damage. A number of times equal to his constitution modifier, a Cursed One may apply a Cursed Mark as a swift action after a successful bite attack. This cursed mark may be resisted by rolling a will save (DC = 10 + WIS mod). On a failure, the target is affected by the Cursed Mark and takes 1 CON damage each round for 1d4 rounds and may roll to resist again every turn. Only one Cursed Mark may be up at any time. * Healthy (2 RP): The Cursed One gains a +4 bonus on Fortitude saves against disease and poison, including magical diseases. * Ashen Damage Reduction (3 RP): The Cursed One gains DR 5/silver. * Stalker (1 RP): Perception and Stealth are always class skills for Cursed Ones. * Untrustworthy (-1 RP): The starting attitude of NPCs is one step lower. Cursed Ones are known for bringing chaos and destruction in their wake and nobody trusts them. Celestial creatures (Angels, Azatas, Aasimars, etc.) have their starting attitude two steps lower. * Low-Light Vision (1 RP): Cursed Ones can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light. Favored Class Options * Aegis: Gain +1/2 damage reduction/silver (stacks with race feature) * Alchemist: Add +1/2 to the alchemist's bomb damage. * Antipaladin: Add +1/2 hit point to the antipaladin’s touch of corruption ability (whether using it to heal or harm). * Arcanist: Add +2.5 feet to the distance the arcanist can move when using the dimensional slide exploit, up to a maximum of 1.5 times the usual distance she could move at her given level. This option has no effect unless the arcanist has selected it twice (or possesses increments evenly divisible by 5); a distance of 12.5 feet is effectively the same as a distance of 10 feet, for example. * Barbarian: While you are raging, your racial natural attacks deal +¼ point of damage. * Bard: Reduce arcane spell failure chance for casting bard spells when wearing medium armor by +1%. Once the total reaches 10%, the bard also receives Medium Armor Proficiency, if he does not already possess it. * Bloodrager: Add 1 foot to the bloodrager’s base speed. In combat, this only has an effect for every five increases in base speed. This bonus stacks with the bloodrager’s fast movementclass feature, and applies under the same conditions and that feature. * Brawler: Add 1 foot to the brawler’s base speed. In combat, this has an effect only for every five increases in the brawler’s base speed. * Cavalier: Add +¼ to the cavalier’s bonus on damage against targets of his challenge. * Cleric: Select one domain power granted at 1st level that is normally usable a number of times per day equal to 3 + the cleric’s Wisdom modifier. The cleric adds +½ to the number of uses per day of that domain power. * Cryptic: The cryptic gains +1/6 of a new insight. * Dread : Add +1/2 to the Cursed One’s daily uses of terrors. * Druid: Add +½ to the druid’s wild empathy bonus. * Fighter: Add a +2 bonus on rolls to stabilize when dying. * Gunslinger: Add +½ to the bonus on initiative checks the gunslinger makes while using her gunslinger initiative deed. * Hunter: Add 1 foot to the hunter’s companion’s base speed. In combat this option has no effect unless the hunter has selected it 5 times (or another increment of 5); a speed of 24 feet is effectively the same as 20 feet, for example. * Inquisitor: Add a +½ on Intimidate checks to demoralize humanoids. * Investigator: Gain a +1/3 bonus on all inspiration rolls. * Magus: Add +½ point of fire damage to spells that deal fire damage cast by the magus. * Marksman: Add a +1/4 circumstance bonus to DCs to resist marksman powers. * Monk: Add a +1/2 circumstance bonus on the monk’s saving throws to resist death attacks. * Ninja: The nija gains +1/6 of a new ninja trick. * Oracle: Treat the Cursed One's level as +½ higher for the purpose of determining the effects of the oracle's curse ability. * Paladin: Add +1 to the amount of damage the paladin heals with lay on hands, but only when the paladin uses that ability on herself. * Psion: Add +1/3 to the psion's saving throws versus mind-affecting effects. * Psychic Warrior: Add +1 to the Cursed One's power points per day. * Ranger: Add +¼ dodge bonus to armor class against the Cursed One's favored enemies. * Rogue: Add +½ to sneak attack damage dealt to creatures with the outsider type. * Samurai: Add +¼ to the cavalier’s bonus on damage against targets of his challenge. * Shaman: The shaman gains 1/6 of a new shaman hex. * Skald: Reduce the arcane spell failure chance for casting skald spells when wearing heavy armor by 1%. Once the total reduction reaches 10%, the skald also receives Heavy Armor Proficiency (if the skald does not already possess it). * Slayer: Add a +¼ dodge bonus to Armor Class against the slayer’s studied target. * Sorcerer: Add +½ point of negative energy damage to spells that deal negative energy damage. * Soulknife: Add 1 foot to the soulknife’s base speed. In combat, this has an effect only for every five increases in the soulknife’s base speed. * Summoner: Add +1/3 to the eidolon’s evolution pool. * Swashbuckler: Increase the total number of points in the swashbuckler’s panache pool by +1/4. * Tactician : Add +1/3 to the tactician’s saving throws versus mind-affecting effects. * Time Thief: Add +1/2 bonus to damage dealt to creatures. * Vitalist: Gain +1/2 additional daily use of transfer wounds. * Warpriest: Gain a +2 bonus on rolls to stabilize when dying. * Wilder: Add 1/4 power known from the wilder power list. This power must be at least one level below the highest power level the wilder can manifest. * Witch: The witch gains 1/6 of a new witch hex. * Wizard: Add one spell from the wizard spell list to wizard’s spellbook. The spell must be at or below the highest level the wizard can cast and be of the illusion (shadow) subschool or have the darkness descriptor. __FORCETOC__ Category:Race